April 09, 2009

Betty Brown suggests Chinese restaurants rename menu items

Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?

God bless Betty Brown, who finds ordering things like Kung Pao Chicken and Moo Goo Gaipan confusing, if not outright embarrassing. And just who the hell was General Tso anyway? Wouldn't patriotic Americans feel more comfortable with General MacArthur Chicken?

March 02, 2009

College Students Soon Carrying Concealed Weapons?

What's in the drinking water at the Texas Capitol?

Texas House Rep. Joe Driver and Sen. Jeff Wentworth are pushing a legislative bill that will permit college students to carry concealed weapon on campus. We're supposed to buy into the bill because the caveat is that a person must be 21 to carry a weapon.

While I believe in the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, this has to be one of the craziest bill to come before the Texas Congress. Concealed weapons in our learning centers? These 2 men may have some serious mental health issues.

- While UT students were passing the day catching a few rays, at the state capitol, Representative Joe Driver was working to pass a new law to allow guns on college campuses.

"What we are saying, 2nd Amendment rights people that have a concealed license, can help stop a situation, but mainly to protect themselves," said Rep. Joe Driver.

Driver, a Republican from Garland, along with State Senator Jeff Wentworth from San Antonio, say the rampage two years ago at Virginia Tech justifies the need for the legislation.

"The criminals realize those are gun free zones, they'll have no opposition if they want to go there and cause problems," said Driver.

With that in mind, Texas State students continue to hold whats called empty holster rallies, wanting to concealed guns to be allowed on campus. A little more than 40 years ago, 14 people were killed here at the University of Texas. Despite the memory of the Clock Tower Shooting, faculty and students have passed resolutions opposing campus carry legislation. John Woods is leading the effort at UT.

"Yeah, its a terrible idea," said Woods.

John Woods, who is a graduate student at UT, also wears a Virginia Tech ring. He does it not just for the degree he got there, but also to honor his friends who were among those killed in the 2007 attack.

"I still feel like Im fighting for all of them" said Woods.

He does not believe armed students and faculty then would have made a difference at Virginia Tech. He says arming campuses now will not help.

"I think the gun only helps the aggressor, the person who starts it," said Woods

Almost 100,000 people currently have gun permits in Texas. Representative driver says those who believe his plan will turn campuses into armed camps just do not understand the law.

"Because they have a child probably sitting in a movie theater with somebody thats packing a gun," said Driver.

Concealed gun permit holders must be 21 years or older. That would limit those with a gun legally on a campus- other than visitors, to faculty members and graduate students.

October 25, 2007

GOP: Not just stupid...really fucking stupid

A recent Rasmussen poll revealed that in a 3-way Clinton-Guliani-Colbert match up, Steven Colbert would net 13% of the vote (about the same amount any "well known" 3rd party candidate would get, according to Ed Kilgore ). The kicker is that Colbert is pulling more support from Guliani than he is from Hillary.

Are there actually a lot of Colbert viewers who don't understand that his Fox Bloviator shtick is a joke? Or is Rudy benefitting from a hitherto-undiscovered segment of the electorate that doesn't understand he's dead serious?

June 05, 2007

The Children! Will No One Think Of The Children?

Among the interesting ephemera to emerge from the I Lewis Libby trial (Yes, Kay Bailey, perjury turns out to be a crime after all) is a collection of letters from the neoncon movers and shakers begging the judge to go easy on ol' Scoot Scoot.

One of the most touching is an appeal from the Beltway's Odd Couple, Reagan's literary fellatrix Mary Matalin and Democratic "strategist" James Carville.

I have seen what this trial has done to my own kids, just their reading about it. I cannot imagine the toll on Scooter and Harriet's young ones. Setting aside the pain of the Libby family, my girls just don't understand. They're old enough to intellectually comprehend the facts of the case but associating these "facts" wit "Mr. Scooter" remains a complete disconnect to them.

Mary! Your kids are what? Eight? What are they doing reading the Washington Post? Get 'em an X-Box before they grow up to be like you!

May 28, 2007

Are jury verdicts in civil trials irrelevant?

According to the ultra-conservative Texas Supreme Court, you bet... if they disagree with the verdict even if it was based on sound legal ground. Way to turn the appeals process on it's head...

Reversing a multimillion dollar judgment is not out of character for a court packed with conservative judges, six of them appointed by Gov. Rick Perry before winning pro forma elections. But the legal reasoning that the slim majority used to justify its ruling was so alarming—and sets such an unappetizing precedent—that it has spawned incredulity in Texas legal circles. In effect, the court reviewed the evidence and decided the jury was wrong. It was a remarkable reach beyond the court’s usual exercise of power.

Ordinarily, appeals courts give great deference to a jury’s conclusions. Jurors, after all, are the ones who hear the witnesses, review evidence, and deliberate the case. A court usually has a compelling reason when it decides to disregard the jury’s conclusions.

What that reason might be is not clear in this case. More than a few scholars argue that the state Supreme Court doesn’t have a sound legal principle with which to justify its decision. Worse, they fear it opens the door for other Texas courts to begin arbitrarily tossing aside jury verdicts with which they disagree. If the high court continues on this course, they say, the constitutional right to a civil jury trial could be in jeopardy.

Pinche Tejano has more on the judges up for re-election next year. These folks need to be shown the door, post haste.